18. The Dudley Boyz vs. The Hardy Boyz vs. Edge & Christian - WrestleMania 2000
Tag Team wrestling had seen a bit of resurgence in the fall of 1999, in large part thanks to the Tag Team Ladder match at No Mercy between Edge and Christian and The Hardy Boys. Matt and Jeff had come into the WWE that year as a high flying duo, while Edge and Christian had been part of The Brood together. The Dudleys debuted soon after as maniacal partners who put all that stood before them through tables, culminating in a Tag Team Tables match at Royal Rumble 2000 with the Hardys, with whom they tore the house down with their creative blend of false finishes within the confines of such a unique and challenging match. Edge and Christian were reinserted into the fold for Mania. The Tag Team titles were put on the line in a special Triangle Ladder match to determine the best in a popular new period for tag team wrestling. If you ever wanted to show a person who constantly called wrestling fake a match that would make them rethink their stance and/or gain a little bit of respect for what some guys are willing to put their body through to make it in the business of sports entertainment, then this might very well be the match that you should offer up. Six men that were hungry to make their mark on the WWE spent nearly twenty-five minutes beating the living hell out of each other in what was the first, yet unofficial TLC match. If people thought that the No Mercy Ladder match was extreme, then the introduction of many a broken table off of a ladder took things to a new level. By the end, the six men that had walked into the match as Mania rookies walked out as the leaders of a new golden era that would eventually be called TLC. It was one of the craziest stunt brawls ever witnessed in the WWE. ECW had truly displayed its influence on the WWE with a match of this magnitude. It stole the show at that years WrestleMania and sparked the main-event careers of Jeff Hardy and Edge. Of course, it also gave birth to a classic new match type in TLC. It was groundbreaking.
"The Doc" Chad Matthews has written wrestling columns for over a decade. A physician by trade, Matthews began writing about wrestling as a hobby, but it became a passion. After 30 years as a wrestling fan, "The Doc" gives an unmatched analytical perspective on pro wrestling in the modern era. He is a long-time columnist for Lordsofpain.net and hosts a weekly podcast on the LOP Radio Network called "The Doc Says." His first book - The WrestleMania Era: The Book of Sports Entertainment - ranks the Top 90 wrestlers from 1983 to present day, was originally published in December 2013, and is now in its third edition.
Matthews lives in North Carolina with his wife, two kids, and two dogs.
